


Sasha

by TirNanOg89



Series: Past Is Prologue [7]
Category: Sharpe - All Media Types, Stargate SG-1
Genre: AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-21
Updated: 2015-02-21
Packaged: 2018-03-14 09:16:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3405302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TirNanOg89/pseuds/TirNanOg89
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>SG1 save a life, with amazing, and far reaching, consequences. Post Familia Animi.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sasha

Sasha

“Colonel O’Neill Sir, there’s a Mr. James Quinn at the Gate requesting to see you Sir. He says you probably don’t remember him but SG1 saved him and he wishes to talk to you about the Gate Sir.”

Jack was as close to shock as he got these days. After years of fighting aliens and walking through a vertical pool of water to other planets, finding out vampires were real and becoming one, he was damned near unshakable. Someone on Earth and without clearance for the mountain who knew about the Gate, however, was a little surprising. 

“Take him to the conference room on level one and get me everything you can find on him. Bring it to the conference room ASAP.” 

Jack didn’t waste any time gathering the rest of his team and taking them to the conference room. Jack never went into any situation with any kind of expectations anymore, which was good, as if he had had any they would have been way off the mark. The man had been sat slouching at the table but stood almost to attention as they entered the room. He had dusty blond, clean but messy hair and blue eyes, his face was a little too rough to be conventionally handsome and the scar running from his left eye down to his chin left his expression looking sardonic at best until he grinned straight at Jack. 

The grin pulled at Jacks memory but remained a nebulas feeling so he ignored it in the hopes that it would soon solidify. As he moved into the room and closer to the man he paid more attention to the small details of his face. The grin made him look cheeky and almost childlike, giving the scar a ‘dashing’ air that was almost impossible to ignore. Jacks memory was clearing and though his rational mind fought hard against the possibility, his instinct was leading him to a clear and unarguable answer, and he had learnt long ago not to ignore his instinct.

“Sasha?”

The mans smile grew.

“The one and only.”

The rest of SG1 looked back and forth between the two men while Jack gave Sasha a huge hug. He didn’t have a clue what was going on but he was more than happy to see him.

******** ********  
Three Months Earlier.  
Just left P7X-331

SG1 stepped through the Gate and stopped.

“Carter?”

“Not a clue Sir.”

The ‘pre-flight’ MALP had shown a nice tropical paradise with a few obelisks for Daniel to play with and plenty of ‘soil’ samples for Carter to play with, and Jack and Teal'c could relax and watch the kids play. Jack had almost begged Hammond for the mission as a sort of working holiday for his team.

As usual, things had gone wrong. They had had a lovely first day but half way through the second they had been attacked by locals. They appeared less than friendly and even Daniel wasn’t inclined to try communicating. The stones being hurled his way may have put him off. Unfortunately as he finished dialing two stones had hit the DHD and he thought he would have to re-dial but the Gate had opened anyway so he put it to the back of his mind and went through. 

This however was not home. They were in a temple of some kind and Daniel went straight to the writing on the walls.

“Jack, this is ancient Egyptian.”

Jack, having heard this as the beginning of a long boring lecture so many times. pre-empted him.

“Crossed with?”

“Ah, nothing. This is ancient Egyptian, pure and simple. Or not so simple actually, because it’s very complex but you don’t want to hear that right now. What you might want to know is that the dedication on this wall is to Ra. From this piece of the story I would say its probably the story of how the great and wondrous Ra came here and saved the poor little people by taking them to his home in the stars. Jack, I may be paranoid but I think we’ve done it again. I can damn near guarantee that if you walk out that door you’ll see Giza.”

Jack looked at him, plainly begging him to say it was a joke but Daniel just shrugged and shook his head. They both looked at Sam who also shrugged.

“Still not a clue Sir.”

Daniel looked at them a little warily.

“Ah, this couldn’t maybe have something to do with the two extra chevrons that got hit could it?”

Sam looked at him with a million obvious questions, and Jack with indulgent despair. 

“What extra chevrons Danny?”

“Well, as I finished dialing home a couple of rocks hit the DHD but it still engaged so I didn’t worry about it. It was these two.”

He pointed them out to Sam and she began thinking out loud. 

“Well, we already know that an extra chevron adds a new distance factor to the wormhole. Maybe these two in conjunction with a normal address adds a time factor. But is it just these two or does each pair add a different factor? One pair goes back and another forward? Or maybe A then B takes you forward x years and B then A takes you back? The permutations are almost endless! This could be the beginning of time travel at our convenience!”

“Carter! You’re a scientist, stop and think for a moment what could happen if that kind of power got into the wrong hands? The NID are already after the Gate for space travel, they would stop at nothing if they thought they could travel in time too! Even in the most benevolent hands it could mean disaster. What if some fair minded ‘humanitarian’ decided to off Hitler before World War Two? I don’t approve of the means or methods, but advances made by the Allies alone have saved millions of lives. Radar has probably saved millions in air traffic accidents, and it lead to the Microwave which has saved my life a few times.”

Sam had listened seriously until the end when she couldn’t help but grin.

“I know, but a girl can dream. It would be fun to play if you knew there would be no consequences.”

Jack and Teal'c shared a sly grin at that and Sam and Daniel looked at each other in confusion. Jack clapped his hands together and spoke overly cheerfully. 

“Right then, what say we get back before we screw anything up?”

******** ******** 

Sam decided the best thing to try was the exact opposite to what got them there in the first place. So far the Gate seemed to work on the simplest of principles, if you ignored the actual physics behind it. Jack, of course, agreed, like he was going to argue with her? She was about to dial home when Jack felt a twitch in the back of his neck that generally told him he was being watched, just before they heard a scuffling in the corner. Instantly ready for trouble they split up and took cover while Jack went to investigate. It turned out to be a young boy of about ten. Jack immediately called Daniel over as he, presumably, knew the local language but when the boy answered it was in Latin. This of course was one of Jacks many hidden talents and he ended up talking to the boy more than Daniel did. 

It didn’t take long for them to find out that Sasha was a slave; his family had been bought here for the Gods from over the sea. Neither man could help the reflexive ‘false gods’. Sasha looked shocked but definitely ready to believe them. Nobody else had ever talked to Sasha like these men, and though she had short hair and wore the same uniform as the men, he knew Sam was a woman, and he liked the way they treated her. After the way he had seen his mother and sisters treated by the gods servants as well as the locals he really liked the way this group treated others. Especially Jack. Daniel was a kind man and friendly too but Jack was funny as well, even though he seemed a little sad every time he looked at him. There was just something about Jack that struck a chord in him. 

Jack knew they didn’t have long and wished he could take the boy with him, but he had just got through lecturing Carter about the evils of altering the time-line. He knew he couldn’t but that didn’t stop the temptation. 

They soon sent Sasha home and left. It turned out that Sam was right (shocking!) and they knew that they had time-travel at their fingertips. They also knew it was too dangerous to allow man that kind of power, even the most careful of pure intentions could have unforeseen catastrophic results. They all trusted Hammond implicitly but they couldn’t chance telling even him. The chance of a careless comment or, god forbid, outside bugs catching something too dangerous and setting off devastation was too high. It was unanimously decided that their mission reports would end on P7X-331 and they would never speak of this again. Nobody would ever know.

******** ********  
Cheyenne Mountain  
Present day

Jack finally let Sasha go and they sat around the table where they, obviously, wanted to know how he was still alive two thousand years later, Sam and Teal'c’s presence ruling out Goa’uld possession, and what he had done since meeting them. They couldn’t have imagined if they tried.

“I woke up recently and remembered you. I know I didn’t remember it before, as it’s not the kind of thing I would have kept from certain people. And I would have come here as soon as humanly possible, as I just have. Now, I’m no Einstein or DaVinci but I’m not an idiot either. You people are playing with time, history, my life, and it is anything but safe. I don’t do threats but I will warn you, I know many, many people the likes of which you could not comprehend, who will not tolerate you playing with their lives. And yes, they do know where I am and will not react well if I ‘disappear’. What you did that day, while morally commendable on the face of it, changed history. My existence now is proof of that. If you hadn’t have been there that day I would have gone into the inner sanctum of the temple. As it was I barely missed a priest on my way out, if I had been caught inside I would have been put to death."

Jack looked straight into Sasha’s eyes and spoke quietly but clearly. 

“We are not playing with time. On purpose at least. There have been two unforeseeable and unavoidable accidents where we have done our best to minimize possible damage. In fact, other than you and anybody you have told, we are the only four people who have even the slightest clue that the last one occurred. Until now, it hasn’t even been spoken of since we came home. We trust others on this base with our lives, do so regularly, but one mistake and the world is screwed.”

Sasha nodded at this, and after looking around at the solemn faces of the rest of the team he grinned.

“Good to hear. I was worried I was gonna have to beat some sense into you.”

Jack grinned back at him then frowned.

"So how the hell are you here now? Cause the ideas currently running through my head are so not good ones!"

Sasha laughed at him.

"I would love to hear some of those ideas! Unfortunately it is not something I am willing to discuss here, there is too much chance of others overhearing, I wouldn’t have spoken about any of this but I had no choice, now I do."  
"Ok, first there's a record of you coming here with previous knowledge of the Gate, Hammond is going to want an explanation for that. We'll come up with something, but before that, I say we all sneak off base now, go back to my place and find out what the hell is going on. We have a lot to tell you, and it sounds like you have plenty to tell us."  
"Sounds good to me."  
"Well it doesn’t to me. Sorry Sir, but if we leave the base now without telling anyone Hammond will assume, fairly, that we've been compromised."  
"Damn. I was so hoping!"  
"Cheer up Jack, I'll go talk to George, Sam, you can go tell your people we're going early today and Teal'c can get the truck ready, we'll take Jacks. We can all crash at ours tonight and be back in tomorrow with explanations and excuses."

Jack looked indulgently at Daniel then grinned at Sasha.

"That's why I love him!"

Sasha grinned back.

"Completely understandable."

Jack mock frowned at him.

"Eyes only!"  
"Wouldn’t dream of anything else. Well, I might, but I wont tell anyone about it."

Daniel blushed furiously and left, heading to General Hammond's office as quickly as he could, praying the blush would be gone by the time he got there. It didn’t take long to explain that an old 'friend' had turned up and they needed some time to go over a few things with him. George had learnt well that questioning SG1's judgment was not wise, especially lately since the addition of Angel, Spike and Xander. Daniel was quickly on his way the garage, sending Jack, Sam and Teal'c a text to let them know they were free, then he sent another to Angel, warning them that they were on their way with friends, so the other three could make their selves presentable.

Jack couldn’t help the grin at Sasha's comment, or Daniel's hasty retreat. Sasha grinned back at him as the others left to get their own tasks sorted, Jack took a deep breath and started talking.

"So, one thing you should know now, before we get to our place, is that vampires are real."  
"I haven't lived this long without figuring that out."  
"Right, an I'm one."  
"Huh. Well, you still have a job so I assume you are Kindred?"  
"Yeah. Had a bit of a thing, before we met you the first time, things happened, I got turned, found a new family, found out I could keep Danny, it's all good."  
"I'm sure it is. Who turned you?"  
"Angelus, of the Aurelius line."  
"Huh. He had a few problems a while back didn’t he? Went on a bit of a hunt from what I heard, got what they were looking for and went quiet again, about a hundred years ago?"  
"Yeah, that about sums it up. How do you know?"  
"You'd be amazed at my contacts Jack! I have a lot of friends. I'll tell you more when we get to yours."  
"Yeah, thought it would take longer to explain our side. There's a bit more to go but nothing startling, more of a heads up before we introduce you to Hammond."  
"Not a problem, shall we go, do you think?"  
"Yeah, Danny's had plenty of time. Come on, I wanna introduce you to Sire, should be fun!"

Sasha chuckled, a deep rumbling caress of the senses, felt as much as heard. Jack couldn’t help a shiver, he shock his head and reminded his self that he had more than enough lovers, however tempting Sasha had turned out to be. Sasha smirked as he watched Jacks reaction from the corner of his eye, he knew nothing would come of it, but it was fun to see he could affect a man like Jack so viscerally. It didn’t take them long to get to the garage where they found Teal'c and Daniel waiting for them. They walked slowly to the other two men and saw Sam coming in from the other direction. They were soon in the truck and Jack never took his time getting home, so they were at the house before Sasha had a chance to wonder too much about what else they had to share before he was introduced, if he was, to Hammond. Jack let them into the house calling out as he opened the door.

"Honey I'm home!"

Daniel sighed, Sam smiled, Sasha grinned and Teal'c raised an eyebrow as a black mop of hair came bolting in from the garden and pounced on Jack, kissing him breathless as he was slammed back into the wall next to the door, wrapped in an armful of Xander.

"Missedyousomuchshouldneverhaveleftyouihatehavingtoleaveyouaonewithjustdannywhatifyouneededusitcouldhavetakenagestogettoyouwemightnothavegottenherequickenoughweshouldneverhaveleftiamsogladwearebackimissedyousomuchcanwefucknowplease?"

Sasha laughed deep and hard at that. The boy was definitely not shy! Sam looked at him curiously.

"Did you actually understand a word of that?"  
"You couldn’t? It was plain enough, he said, 'Missed you so much, should never have left you. I hate having to leave you alone with just Danny. What if you needed us? It could have taken ages to get to you! We might not have gotten here quick enough! We should never have left. I am so glad we are back, I missed you so much. Can we fuck now please?' He's refreshingly blunt. Some people think that a long life span means they have to take forever to say anything, pisses me off."

Sam just stared at him for a while trying to get her head around all that, then realized she might as well just forget it. She shook her head and walked away, heading for the kitchen and the coffee pot. 

Jack didn’t even consider trying to dissuade Xander, he had missed them too. They had been away for a week, in talks with the Kindred Prince, telling him about the SGC's newest endeavor in international co-operation. It had been a week too long for the youngest two vampires. They took their time getting reacquainted, generally with tongue. They eventually pulled apart to find that everyone else had moved on into the main room, cups of coffee and bottles of water spread out for everyone. Jack looked around his front room and grinned. All his favourite people were here, as well as Sasha. Now it was time to find out his story! He headed to the last open seat, next to Daniel, and sat down, dragging Xander into his lap as he went, he wasn’t ready to let him go yet, and he knew Xander felt the same way. Jack made eye contact with his Sire and Spike, reassuring his self they were there and in one piece, before he looked to Sasha. Sasha looked back at Jack and smiled, he could see this group were as close as they could get, in their own ways. He had done his homework, he had learnt a lot more than any of the brass would be comfortable with, and he knew he had made the right choice coming here. Now it was time for explanations. Jack looked at him expectantly.

"So, Sasha, this is Angel, my Sire, Spike and Xander. Guys, this is Sasha."  
"I'm going by James Quinn at the moment, thank you for having me, it's an honor to be invited into your home."  
"We are glad to have you, any friend of Jack's is welcome in this family."

Sasha smirked at Angel, he hadn't missed the subtle threat or the warning. Any 'friend' of Jacks wouldn’t do him harm, so if he did, in any way, he was no friend and fair game, he appreciated and approved of the sentiment. 

"Thank you. If every one is in agreement, I am happy to get straight to the point."  
"Good, I appreciate anyone who does so."

Sasha smiled genuinely at Angel then looked around the room, making sure he had everyone's attention before he started.

"In 2994 B.C. I decided, at ten years old, that I needed to see the inner sanctum of the Gods temple. I found four people in the Gods travel room, they changed my view of humanity greatly. The single woman in the group was treated as an equal, as was the dark man. Age, colour and gender made no difference to these people. I was a slave child, my mother and sisters were treated as little more than animals, myself only slightly better. The biggest impact these people had on me though, was to save my life by sending me home before I got caught. The change in my attitude to others was both a blessing and a curse, but they saved my life in so many ways. It was many years before I realised exactly how much they had done for me. When I was in my twenty seventh year I was killed, a pointless death at the hands of bandits, there were too many of them and I was alone, though I took enough of them with me to feel righteous as I died, happy to go to the after life. Only I didn’t. I woke up. I was alone and everything had been stolen. I didn’t know what had happened until a few years later when I met a scholar who recognised me as one of his own. I am an Immortal, I cannot die, not permanently, unless someone takes my head. There is some stupidity, called The Game, that most Immortals seem to believe in. They think the last of us to survive will get some great 'Prize', gods only know what, so they go around trying to kill off the competition."  
"If you can't die, how did they save your life? Not that I'm dismissing what they did."  
"I wouldn’t have survived long as a ten-year-old immortal. The first of my kind that found me would have taken my head, either for an easy quickening or as a mercy. Can you even imagine being ten for three thousand years?”  
"That's why it is forbidden to turn a child. If they did survive they would surely go insane."  
"Exactly. After my first death I decided I would never be at any mans mercy again, so I learnt everything I could about self defense. One of my teachers decided I was good at it, that I could do more than defend myself. So he taught me to defend others too. When I found out I was immortal it seemed natural to defend those that weren't. So I have traveled through the years learning and fighting for others. When I figured out something had happened I asked a few friends to look into it for me. You might want to look into your security Jack, they found out a lot more than I think you would be happy with. So I came here to thank you for saving me, and to offer my help in any way I can."

Everyone sat digesting that for quite a while, thinking over everything he had told them. Though Jack was now first and foremost Angels Childe, he was still a military man, he still served his country and his planet, this was a hell of a gift to offer him. He thought about everything that was going on at the SGC at the moment and nodded decisively. 

"Thank you. I wish there were more people like you, we already seem to have most of them at the SGC, so it's always great to meet more. Before I can accept your offer, and let me just say that I really don’t want to wait but I have to, to be fair to you, let me tell you what's going on at the moment. I'm going to assume you know everything on our servers so stop me if you don’t know what I'm talking about at any point. Since the Gate was opened the third time and the SGC was created we have tried to work under a complete information blackout, often unsuccessfully. Between Daniel, Hammond and myself, with a lot of help from Thor, we have managed to convince the President that we need more scope on Earth, we need more people out there that we can call on in emergencies, and we need more people in the program. 

"There are also other groups out there that are classified as Top Secret as we are. They could be the answers we need, the help, the advantage over the Goa'uld, we just don’t know. We could also be the thing they need. We need more co-operation, more Intel sharing, just more. We have done this for years, we are flying by the seat of our pants here, have been from the start, we stumble from one disaster to the next, and so far we've come out on top, but for how long? So, we have been in closed talks with a lot of people for a few months, nobody has told anyone anything yet, but we know these people have as much reason as us to keep secrets, and just as much need for all the help they can get. There's a couple of groups from Britain, a lot from here and several from other places too. CI5 is mediating, they will hold everything, all the cards, from everyone, they will have full and complete access to everything any of us know, then they will share what needs to be known. So think about this, just how sure are you that you are ready to out your entire race? We will be according full disclosure, absolutely everything Hammond knows, every file and report, will be seen by CI5. We are still figuring out the details of how we are going to get everyone together to give everyone the bare bones 'this is us' from everyone else, without having to go over everything a hundred times, but it will happen. If you are officially known to the SGC then you will be known to a whole hell of a lot more. Sire, Spike and Xan have been negotiating this with the Kindred for months, you have a couple of weeks before this whole thing hits the fan. Please don’t think I don’t want you with us, I really, really do, but this isn't just about you and us, it's your entire race. And once you find out everything else going on, you might find you would prefer to be somewhere else that would need you just as much as we do."

Sasha stared at him for a long time. His friends hadn't found any hint of this in the information they had hacked, which was a damn shame, it could have saved him his current situation.

"Well fuck."  
"Yeah, pretty much."  
"Right. I have a few people to talk to. How the hell am I supposed to tell everyone, let alone get them to agree on anything?"

Jack grinned at him. No one could believe just how well Sasha was taking this. He was so laid back he was practically horizontal. Every word was said so casually, like it didn’t really affect him in the slightest.

"I suppose I should start with James, he has an in with the Watchers. They think they're a secret society, they watch us and chronicle our lives, too stalker for my liking, I've managed to avoid them so far."

Everyone considered that for a moment before Xander spoke, staring at Angel.

"Hey! Why haven't you told us about Immortals before?"  
"Because I didn’t know about them."  
"But he knows all about us."  
"He is more than ten times my age you know! I can't be expected to know everything!"  
"Something Dead Boy doesn’t know!"  
"Xander."

Xander just grinned with unholy glee as he considered all the possible new jokes he could make up about the new guy, and to be fair he was burning with curiosity about him. Thinking of which.

"So! Sash! Tell us about your self! Been in any good wars lately? You're military, that's obvious, been anyone we might know?"

Sasha smiled at the boy, he reminded him of a puppy, all eager enjoyment and not quite knowing his boundaries yet. He took a moment to sympathize with Angel.

"I doubt it, I've generally stayed in the ranks, it doesn’t do to make a name for your self when you don’t age, people tend to notice. I had that lesson banged home after Napoleon."  
"You fought in the Napoleonic wars? Where? When? Who did you meet?"  
"Whoa! Let him answer Xan!"

Jack put his hand over Xander's mouth to make him stop and chuckled when he got licked for it. Sasha just grinned as he answered.

"I worked under Wellington, directly a few times, I met Napoleon on Saint Helena, saw him once at Waterloo, but only from a distance. Did kill a Tippoo Sultan once though. Made a bloody fortune and learnt to never give anyone access to your money, it always ends badly. I fought at Seringapatam, Assaye, Trafalgar, Talavera, Badajoz and Waterloo, amongst others."

Sasha paused for a moment as his mind took him back to some of the best years of his life so far.

************************ 

Flashback:  
Richard finally looked up from the dying embers of the campfire and Dan, sat opposite him, saw the look of wistful longing and near despair he sent at Pat and Ramona. Before their marriage he could tell himself that it was okay, there was nothing to feel guilty about because there was nothing wrong in what they did. But no, now it was a whole new story, Patrick was a man married under god by a real honest to god holy man. Not that Richard Sharpe thought much of god, or at least the Christian version. He did believe in promises though, and Pat had made a promise to Ramona, so he stood up, his wounds still hurting intensely but damned if he would show it. Dan watched him wander around the camp checking everything was as it should be, and knew that only one of the Chosen Men would have realized how much pain their commander was in. He also saw Patrick watching him. Richard wandered into his tent and Dan turned to watch Patrick talking quietly and quickly with Ramona.  
Pat looked at his officer, friend and lover and he was troubled. He knew something had changed for Richard but he wasn't sure what, Ramona smiled at him.  
"He needs you tonight Patrick."  
"Aye he does, but will he have me?"  
He gave her a careful questioning look, Ramona always saw more than anyone else and generally told Patrick most of it.  
"Just as soon as you explain that our marriage doesn't change anything, he'll be fine. You just have to get it through his thick head!"  
Pat looked stunned for a moment then shook his head in despair of ever understanding Richard Sharpe or Ramona. He kissed his wife softly on the lips then went to Richards tent. Richard was led on the bunk and hadn't even bothered to take his boots off. Pat shook his head again.  
"You'll be getting those sheets filthy so ya will, and it's me Ramona'll be shouting at."  
Richard tensed at her name and Pat knew she had been right once again, not that he had really doubted it. He chose to ignore the reaction and set to work taking the boots off his self.  
"Those cuts need tending, I'll get some water."  
Richard continued ignoring him, so he stuck his head out of the tent and looked to where he had left Ramona. He turned it quickly in the other direction as she cleared her throat and handed him a bowl of warm water and rags. He smiled and nodded as she handed them over grinning, sometimes he would have sworn she was telepathic if he had but known the word. He took the bowl as she let the front flaps down to give them at least the illusion of privacy, and sighed as he took in Richards stubborn face and tense body. This was not going to be an easy night, he shrugged to his self and got on with it. Though he was clearly unhappy, Richard didn't fight him as he stripped him off ready to tend the many and varied wounds he had received. Pat soon had him laid out on his own cot naked as the day he was born, then stripped his own shirt and trousers off. He grinned unrepentantly at Richards glare and hard 'Sergeant!'.  
"Ramona'll skin me alive if I get blood on them."  
Richard was not amused, or convinced, but only grunted in response. He was just starting to relax as Pat tended the first of his wounds when the tent flaps opened and Ramona walked in bold as brass with another bowl. He jerked up-right trying to grab the sheet to cover his self as he shouted at her.  
" What the bloody hell are you doing woman?"  
She looked him up and down, blatantly unimpressed.  
" Your wounds need tending and the rest of you could stand a little water. You have nothing I have not seen before. Lay down and be quiet."  
Richard fumed as he pretended not to hear the chuckles coming from Pat and outside the tent, but did as he was told. This, he knew, was not an argument he could win, and contrary to popular belief he did know when to bail out gracefully rather than get beaten that badly. Ramona started at his feet while Patrick concentrated on the wounds, and by the time she had reached his knees he was half asleep. She grinned at Pat who was still wondering what he had done to deserve the two of them. Pat finished with the wounds and got the razor out. Once Patrick had finished shaving Richard he told him to roll onto his front. Richard rolled over and settled his self comfortably again before Pat started washing him, up from his feet and Ramona down from his neck. They worked together gently but firmly enough to avoid tickling what Pat(and so Ramona) knew to be his many ticklish spots. When they were done Ramona pulled a small bottle out of her apron and opened it.  
"I found it. It's not right for the food, but it will be fine on your skin so don't complain."  
Richard had barely moved let alone thought about complaining, he was so relaxed, and still couldn't be bothered to do so, so he let her continue uncontested. Pat couldn't help smiling at Ramona's stern tone and the care with which she began massaging the oil into Richard from the feet up. Patrick emptied the water bowls and tidied up while Ramona finished Richards back. When she had finished she handed him the bottle, kissed him deeply, and left with a grin. Patrick grinned as he marveled again at the woman he had managed to convince to keep him. He looked back to Richard and was almost sorry to move him, he looked so peaceful for once. He would have called it a win and left him where he was to sleep, but he knew that if he didn't deal with the 'married' issue right away it would only fester and be twice as hard to sort out later.  
"Turn over Darlin', come on, lets get you finished."  
Richard grunted softly as Pat helped him turn over, used to being manhandled by this particular man, though any other would get a less than welcoming reaction. Pat picked up the oil again and started at his lovers feet as Richard lay there almost asleep. He knew he didn’t have Ramona's skill at this but enthusiasm made up for a lot. It didn’t take long for his strong but gentle hands to have Richard wide awake again, but still so relaxed that he couldn’t have complained if he had wanted to, not that he did. Pat knew his man well enough to know that just about the only time he would talk about his own wants and feelings was during sex, if he was set up properly. It didn’t take long to coax him to the point where he started thrashing his head on the pillow, chewing his lip to stay as quiet as possible, then he started talking.

"Come on Darlin', talk to me."

Pat knew this was all the encouragement Richard needed, he was naturally a very vocal lover but had trained his self to keep quiet out of necessity.

"Gods Pat! I can't lose you now, I need you Pat!"  
"Oh hush now Darlin', you're not gonna lose me, you and me together, that's how it always is."  
"Ramona got you now."  
"You've been sharing me for a while now, no pretty words from a preacher can change that, and it wont."  
"But…"  
"But nothing you impossible idiot. Nothing is gonna change."

The words obviously got through as Richard relaxed completely into a boneless heap for a moment before surging up-right and grabbing Pat round the neck, dragging him in for a deep kiss full of ebbing pain and fear. It slowly morphed into lust and not a little love as he pulled him back onto the bed with him, laying out together, as they always should be. 

Richard had been telling his self to stop being so stupid over the whole thing, he was going to lose Pat eventually, whether to this stupid war or time her self, but the thought of being with him all the time and not being 'with' him was just too much. He rarely allowed his self to get close to anyone, in any way, it was too painful when they inevitably died on him, but this war had left him little choice. He had been thrown together with this sorry excuse for a company and found a family, he just hoped he could learn to live without them again when they all left him to carry on alone. At least now he knew he had a little longer he could relax again.

************************ 

Sasha shook his head, bringing his self back to the present.

"We were the 95th Rifle regiment, my Chosen Men, every one of the bastards could shoot four rounds a minute, accurately. Dan Hagman was the best of us, he never missed. Pat, Patrick Harper, he was my Sergeant, Regimental Sergeant Major, he always knew how to keep the men going, he led them before I even got the commission."

Sasha stopped talking as he realized Jack was staring at him in something like awe.

"What?"  
"Talavera."  
"Yes, why?"  
"You were at Waterloo with Wellington, first under the Prince of Orange, later given command of the entire unit after he almost killed them all, and pushed back the French flank, practically won the battle for Wellington. Took the first ever French Eagle at Talavera? First over the wall at Gawilghur, saved Wellesley's life at Assaye, retired as a Lt Colonel then went on to fight the Chilean Civil War? Richard Sharpe?"

Sasha looked a little uncomfortable but nodded.

"Holy fucking Mother of Christ! I wrote my god damn thesis on you!"  
"You wrote a thesis?"

Sam looked a little startled and mostly disbelieving. Daniel gave her a glare.

"How do you think he became Colonel? They don’t give them out for the fun of it. He has a PhD in Military History. Why did you think he didn’t give a damn about your doctorate?"  
"I just though…"  
"Yeah, the dumb act is well played, but I thought you knew him better by now Sam."

Sam looked confused and a little ashamed, which Daniel thought only fair.

"Hey! I work damn hard on that act! Nice to know it's working."

Daniel just glared at him, they had had more than one heated debate on the merits of the 'dumb act'.

"He also majored in Classical Literature."  
"Don’t tell all my secrets Danny!"

Sasha chuckled at the bantering, while a little disappointed that Carter obviously didn’t know her CO as well as he had thought she would. It obviously didn’t affect their field work, though, their record spoke for it's self on that score.

"Any who! Back to the matter at hand. What do you want to do Sasha?"  
"I will have to talk to a few others. Personally I would say 'hell yeah' and hope you will be working with the Avengers. I was out of contact when the invasion happened, I was somewhere in Tibet, so I didn’t hear about it till it was all over. That is a group I would sorely like to meet. I'll call James once we have finished here, I'll have to take it from there once I've spoken to him. How much can I tell him outside of what he already knows? Which is what I knew when I got here, he researched you all for me. Even if we don’t get involved, I might be able to convince him to consult with you on your security, you could do with a bit of help, or so he said."

Sam looked slightly affronted at that.

"I designed most of the security myself, it's the best in the country!"  
"It may be, but James has been playing with computers since they were first invented, in fact, he helped make the first one, he has a hell of an advantage over most people."  
"Carter, we aren't dealing with your average Joe any more, you should be used to it by now. You can tell him anything I've just told you, none of it is too classified, much."

Sasha laughed again at that, and the grin on Jacks face as he said it.

"Right, much! Then I suppose it's about time I leave, I'll talk to James, see what he thinks and then get back to you ok?"  
"Sounds like a plan, you know where to find us. If I'm not available on base you can always contact Sire here. If you give Xan your phone he can put all our numbers in for you."

Sasha handed his phone over to Xander with a smile.

"Just for business?"

Xander's grin turned into a leer for a moment as he programmed the numbers into Sasha's phone and they bantered.

"You couldn’t handle me!"  
"You'd be surprised what I can handle boy."  
"Oh! The old man thinks he can take care of me Blondie Bear!"

Spike growled at the much hated nickname and Xander gave him an attempt at a coy look from under his eyelashes, but couldn’t hide the sly glint in his eyes.

"I don’t know Weisstemplar, he's old enough to have a few tricks up his sleeve. Maybe we should give him a go before we make any rash decisions?"  
"Ooh! Can I? Please, please, please! Can I? Can I? Can I?"

Sasha couldn’t help laughing at him, until he noticed that Spike and Angel were both giving him considering looks and realised he could be in for some fun.

"Maybe when I get back little one, but I have to go now. I should have a preliminary answer for you by the end of the week Jack, we can go from there, but it might be an idea to think amongst your selves and try to come up with some kind of protection for us if we join you. I know I would feel a lot better if I knew I had the government behind me if we become common knowledge, it's bad enough knowing that others of my kind are after my head, I don’t want to be looking over my shoulder to avoid becoming a lab rat for the rest of my hopefully long life. I know you can't guarantee anything, but some safe guards and rights would be nice."  
"Yeah, I was thinking about that, any of you could be held for a very long time, I can imagine what some people would do with that kind of 'resource' if they could get a hold of one of you."  
"Exactly, that's why we've remained hidden for so long. None of us will take the chance of being found out so we don’t expose others."  
"Right, and any one government wouldn’t be able to protect you all, but the IOA, useless as they can be, do cover most countries, so if we can get them to recognise you as some kind of nation, like the Comanche or Navajo, they would have to recognise your basic human rights."  
"Write it up for me, I'll be back in a week, ten days at most, and I'll bring some friends."

Jack and Xander shared a grin as they stood up to see Sasha out, the future was looking to be a lot of fun!

 

Perfectus.


End file.
